wingcommanderfandomcom-20200213-history
Temblor Bomb
The Temblor Bomb, also nicknamed the T-Bomb, is a superweapon that appears in the Wing Commander universe. It appears in Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger. About During the year 2669, the final year of the ongoing Kilrathi War, the Terran Confederation was losing its desperate battle with the Kilrathi. Billions of humans were dead, dozens of star systems were ravaged by warfare, and humanity no longer had the ships or weapons necessary to win major battles, resulting in crushing defeats all across the galaxy. If humanity did not act fast, the Kilrathi would surely come to invade Earth and destroy the Terran Confederation. Desperate to end the war, humanity began to deploy superweapons designed to fulfill only one purpose: The destruction of Kilrah, the Kilrathi homeworld. Humanity knew that Kilrah was both the home of the Kilrathi Emperor and a large portion of their unstoppable navy. The destruction of their homeworld would derail the Kilrathi's war progress, so the Confed High Command immediately implemented their plans to fulfill this goal. Plans for Kilrah's destruction actually date back to the late 2650s, the years in which various research teams poured their efforts into creating a weapon powerful enough to annihilate Kilrah. During mid-2669, Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn deployed the first of these weapons: The TCS Behemoth. The Behemoth was an enormous warship whose massive superlaser had enough power to destroy even the largest planets. However, this ship's hasty deployment in wake of the faltering war effort left the Behemoth with weak shields and poor defenses, making it especially vulnerable to attack. Although the Behemoth successfully destroyed the planet Loki VI on its first flight, the Kilrathi, with the help of Confed traitor Colonel Ralgha nar Hhallas, succeeded in pinpointing the Behemoth's weak spots and destroyed the vessel. Confed retreated having never reached Kilrah. At this point, humanity's hopes for winning the war were all but lost, but Confed was still had one option left in its arsenal. Brigadier General James Taggart, head of Special Operations, approached the Confed High Command with plans for the Temblor Bomb, which was first designed ten years before by Doctor Philip Severin. The weapon was designed so that when aimed at a planet's fautline at the correct precision, it would create a resonant frequency that would destabliize the planet's tectonic structure and cause a worldwide earthquake that would destroy the planet. However, a Special Forces team had to research Kilrah's tectonic make-up before this plan could be implemented. The head of this team, Colonel Jeannette Devereaux, deployed ground sensors and orbital probes to research Kilrah's surface and fed the data to a satellite deployed outside of the Kilrah System. The satellite then sent the data back to High Command. Much to Confed's joy, Kilrah had a highly unstable surface, made up of various layers that kept shuffling past each other at a constant rate. This led Confed to believe that it was the planet's constant earthquakes that moved the Kilrathi to become so aggressive. Sadly, Colonel Devereaux and her team were captured by the Kilrathi and later executed, but despite this Confed moved on with its plans. Deployment General Taggart arrived on the Victory and introduced the weapon to Captain William Eisen and Colonel Christopher Blair. Taggart knew that only Blair and his pilots could ever hope to successfully deploy such a powerful weapon under supreme secrecy, so they were tasked with destroying Kilrah. However, there was one obstacle in their plans: There was no bomb. Its creator, Dr. Severin, was the only man who knew how to assemble the device, but he was captured in 2668 by the Kilrathi. Special Ops failed to assemble the device themselves so they ordered the Victory and her pilots to rescue Severin on Alcor 5, a Kilrathi prison planet. After wiping out the planetary defenses, Blair allowed human marines to storm Severin's prison and extract him. Severin and Taggart immediately departed to assemble the Temblor Bomb. Once this was done, a prototype was sent back to the Victory for testing. The vessel jumped into the Hyperion System, where they found a uninhabited and tectonically-unstable planet to test the weapon. Using an advanced version of the F-103A Excalibur Medium Fighter, Blair deployed the weapon into one of the planet's faultlines, resulting in the planet's destruction. With the test successful, General Taggart and the High Command arranged for a strike on Kilrah. The Lancelot Flight A few days later, a massive Confed fleet entered the Freya System, recently reclaimed from the Kilrathi. Colonel Blair was selected to lead the Lancelot Flight, a flight of four Confed pilots flying Excaliburs who would descend to Kilrah's surface and launch the Temblor Bomb into the targeted faultline. Before doing so, however, Blair's wing would have to fly to two secret depots that had been constructed around Kilrah. The first depot would refuel the team for their final flight, and the second depot would be where Blair would load the T-Bomb, which had already been secreted into the system. Blair personally selected the most qualified pilots on the Victory to accompany him on his mission, namely Major Todd "Maniac" Marshall, Lt. Winston "Vagabond" Chang, and Lt. Robin "Flint" Peters. Using Confed's first ever cloaking device, Blair and his strike force infiltrated the Kilrah System and after loading the T-Bomb at the second depot, descended towards Kilrah's surface. Blair's entire strike team was shot down by planetary defenses, but he managed to slip past them and after a deadly trek across the volcanic surface, delivered the T-Bomb to Kilrah's faultline. Blair then fled the planet. Mere moments later, the T-Bomb detonated deep within the planet, causing an earthquake that killed the Kilrathi Emperor and destroyed the Imperial City. The Kilrathi Grand Fleet orbiting the planet was decimated, and all orbiting space stations and Kilrah's two moons were destroyed. Finally, Kilrah exploded, destroying everything it its range. With the loss of their homeworld, leadership, and their military, the Kilrathi surrendered within an hour after the attack, finally ending the Kilrathi War. The Temblor Bomb was never used again after the War, and it can be assumed that it was decommissioned from service as it had fulfilled its sole purpose: the destruction of Kilrah. Category:Technology